[quote="MrPeabody"]I agree. It also seems that the concept of God has changed with our culture. Preaching a vengeful god was considered normal just 100 years ago, whereas today it is considered outrageous. God is now required to be politically correct and is not allowed to be any more dangerous then Bambi's mother. /quote]

Mystery wrote:The word "God" has been misused so much that it doesn't mean anything anymore.

God is a principle. God is not a person. Thus, since God is not a person, it cannot love or hate you. It just keeps working according to the same principles as it ever did.

It's like asking: Does the US constitution love or hate you?

That sounds more like "karma" which is suppose to behave similar to a mechanical rule. God, who is usually defined as the greatest being that can be conceived, would subsume principals. The Constitution is a set of broadly defined rights of individuals and power of government. God can be thought of as transcendent, imminent, and/or personal. The Westboro Baptist Church are good lawyers, but terrible theologians, although the "hatred of God" has been extensively discussed in the ancient literature. Maybe Buddha took the most intelligent route - you don't need to know the nature of god to achieve enlightenment so don't waste your time trying.

That's our job. Thanks to Him, we can at least stop being the cause of evil and suffering - if we listen to Him. God doesn't prevent rapes, He prevents us from becoming the rapist. Preventing rapes is our job. The term is "patriarchy".

Winston wrote:
Since he doesn't do that, either he doesn't exist, is not that powerful, doesn't care, or as I suspect, is nothing like what you think he is.

Either He is not all-loving, or else He is not all-powerful. I believe the latter. Having left Adam in charge, He can only rule through actions by humans. No divine intervention without human action and prayer. If it is to be, it is up to me. As Jews put it, God helps those who help themselves.